{"id":12893,"date":"2026-03-27T22:05:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T22:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=12893"},"modified":"2026-03-27T23:04:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T23:04:48","slug":"is-the-winter-sports-season-too-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2026\/03\/is-the-winter-sports-season-too-long\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Winter Sports Season Too Long?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we enter the heart of the winter sports season, student-athletes continue to face long days, late nights and increasing academic pressures. The season can feel never-ending, spanning from early-November to mid-February<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winter sports practices are often late at night; for example, ice hockey practices can end at 10 p.m. and squash practices end at 9 p.m. This late end for sports is coupled with more intense academics as the school year’s pace begins to increase. Winter sports overlap with finals week,  creating more intense pressure with a lack of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winter sports are often more physically demanding than other seasons\u2019 sports. Indoor track and swimming both rely on high-intensity and endurance-based training. Colder temperatures also reduce muscle recovery <\/a>as they constrict blood vessels, lower flexibility and stiffen joints. The cold also increases nerve sensitivity<\/a>, making pain or soreness more apparent. When exercising outside, the body also fights to stay warm<\/a>, leading it to expend more energy than when exercising under warmer conditions. While many winter sports practice indoors for these reasons, sports such as winter track often have their practice outside until conditions don\u2019t allow them to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seasonal changes can lead to mental effects in students beyond physical strain. As the days become shorter, there is increased melatonin production<\/a> in the body. This shift can lead people to feel tired or groggy during the winter months. While humans do not hibernate like other organisms during the winter, they do often experience an increased need for sleep. This leaves students with less energy <\/a>to balance both sports and academics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While winter sports can place mental strain on students, one may also argue that participating in sports is inherently beneficial for mental health. Exercise boosts overall mood by releasing endorphins. Endorphins<\/a> work by binding to opioid receptors in the brain, blocking pain signals. This leads to an overall mood boost often referred to as \u201crunner\u2019s high<\/a>.\u201d In addition to this chemical response, exercise provides many students with structure, social connection and mental breaks from academics. However, the beneficial effects of exercise are often negated by late-night practices, reduced sleep and overwhelming academic pressure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these challenges, many students have mixed opinions about the winter sports season. \u201cI do think that the winter sports season is too long, as it’s a lot longer than other ones, especially fall,\u201d said Fieldston swimmer Keira Price (Form IV), \u201cBut I personally don\u2019t mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another student-athlete, when asked if it helps to prepare them for other seasons, said, \u201cNo? I mean fundamentals like track do, but P.M. fitness allows you to better prepare for your sport.\u201d Some athletes pointed out that while the winter season is the longest, it has the most calendar interruptions. Ella Weinig (Form IV), a Fieldston track runner, said, \u201cI think it is too long, but at the same time it kind of makes sense because all the breaks in the winter, like winter break and finals, when a lot of people skip sports.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While all these concerns suggest the winter season may be overly demanding and long, options remain limited. Fieldston’s athletic schedule is determined by the Ivy Prep League, a group of seven other schools that all already follow this schedule. Despite this, some challenges can be addressed here at school. Shorter practice times and more flexible schedules can help students manage sports along with academic pressure. As Fieldston winter sports teams continue to break records this season, it leads one to wonder what could be accomplished if the schedule was designed to support student-athletes\u2019 physical, academic and mental well-being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we enter the heart of the winter sports season, student-athletes continue to face long days, late nights and increasing academic pressures. The season can feel never-ending, spanning from early-November to mid-February.  Winter sports practices are often late at night; for example, ice hockey practices can end at 10 p.m. and squash practices end at 9 p.m. This late end for sports is coupled with more intense academics as the school year’s pace begins to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":460,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[347,318,317],"tags":[],"coauthors":[729],"class_list":["post-12893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-news","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/460"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12894,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12893\/revisions\/12894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12893"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}